vCapture(TM): Providing secure, accurate and timely remote data entry

Today, Jun 2003 by Hoard, Bruce

The vCapture Solution

vCapture from Virtual Solutions is a secure, scalable and distributed application service that helps risk-averse organizations lower their data entry costs by eliminating temporary labor typically used for second and third shifts, while improving data accuracy and availability.

Data captured from vCapture usually costs 20%-30% less than data collected from traditional outsourcing operations, and is 30%-50% less expensive than traditional in-house processing operations. vCapture costs roughly the same as off-shore processing, but offers a far more secure and timely environment to customers such as tax and revenue agencies who are extremely reticent to send their data offshore.

Adding to its economic allure, vCapture requires scant up-front capital investment, is paid for by existing operational funds, and is compatible with existing data capture workflow systems. Other financial benefits include reduced training and decreased equipment costs.

vCapture ensures the highest levels of security and accuracy. In so doing, it relies on dual-source verification and the unique ability to break scanned documents down into scrambled "snippets" that are compressed and password-protected before being dispatched to hundreds of home-based keyers.

That kind of security is a major reason why the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue is relying on vCapture to process 5.5 million personal income, property and employer tax documents.

Security: A Critical Key to Success

vCapture is a suite of applications that allow scanned documents containing sensitive information to be broken into individual fields-or snippets-which are scrambled and compressed for security and then sent to Virtual Solutions' www.keyforcash.com website. At this point, any of the hundreds of available vCapture work-at-home keyers can log on to the website and perform key-from-image data entry on each snippet.

These keyers see only randomly ordered fields because no two pieces of information from the same form-such as a customer name and matching address-are ever dispatched to the same keyer. In order to further enhance security, highly sensitive fields such as Social Security numbers are split into two separate halves and scrambled.

These compressed files have built-in checksums that ensure that once data is returned to the customer site, the uncompressed data is exactly the same binary pattern as the original. This prevents any bit errors and verifies that no tampering has taken place.

All of this work is done within the confines of internal customer business rules. And it is performed in a seamless environment because vCapture is compatible with legacy data capture workflow systems.

Accuracy: The Holy Grail of Data Capture

Accuracy is the key to successful data input. Anything less than the highest level of accuracy is expensive and unacceptable. For example, if a customer's name is misspelled on a new credit card, it is expensive and time-consuming to re-issue a card with the correct name. Or, if a name or address is incorrect on a tax form, another expensive correction is required.

Even with the use of recognition technologies, some mistakes are invariably made. In an attempt to minimize those mistakes, data entry operations rely on exception handling systems that use checks and validations to find errors. Still, however, incorrect information slips through the system, leading to calls of protest from taxpayers and consumers. Again, these errors are expensive to fix.

vCapture minimizes mistakes and achieves 99%-plus accuracy through its dual source architecture. This approach requires that each piece of information be validated identically from at least two independent sources.

Traditional data capture operations are satisfied with results if a recognition engine registers high confidence in its findings. However, these engines may register high confidence in their results even when they experience substitution errors. vCapture avoids these errors by taking an additional step to ensure the highest level of accuracy. It does this by insisting that recognition engine results be verified by either a human keyer or through the use of lookups/cross reference tables. Only after these two sources agree on results is the data considered accurate.

The importance of Timeliness

Timeliness is essential to companies seeking a competitive advantage, and because vCapture is an integrated solution, it is able to turn jobs around more quickly than traditional service bureaus. Unlike service bureaus and other outsourcers, Virtual Solutions does not have to bundle up paper or images, throw them on a truck or ship them on a GD and then wait 24 hours, 48 hours or even up to a week to get them back in completed form.

In contrast, vCapture is integrated on a real time basis into the customer's in-house workflow, so that as images are being scanned and recognized, they are also being compressed, scrambled and transmitted to the www.keyforcash.com website for processing within hours, or even minutes. Once they are returned, these images are decompressed and reassembled back into the workflow.